Short Circuit

My husband of 40 years is always ready to help people. He is also very kind to his family and is always eager to embark on a family outing. However, he has one stipulation. He would rather not drive long distances at night, as he has had challenging experiences driving in the dark in fog, rain and other inclement weather.

I, on the other hand, have always felt that we should leave at night so as not to waste the day by traveling.

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Last year, I convinced him to leave for the mountains late on a Saturday night so that we could enjoy a full day of activities on Sunday. He was not comfortable with this suggestion, but agreed nonetheless.

After we traversed the Washington Bridge, I commented that the trip was going smoothly. Suddenly, the headlights began to dim. Since there are no lights on the Palisades Parkway, we were in a dangerous situation. We didn’t know what to do. We started making a mental list of all the people we knew in Monsey who might put us up for the night. Through all this, my husband, much to his credit, remained calm and did not make me feel guilty for convincing him to leave at night.

What he said was, “Did you remember to say Tefillas Haderech?” I had forgotten to say it, so I quickly took the prayer book out of the glove compartment and began to recite it aloud by the light of a small penlight.

No sooner had I finished saying the prayer than the lights in our car began to work again.

We were not sure if we should continue on our journey, so we proceeded with caution to the next gas station. The attendant there offered to assess the problem. He did not find anything wrong with the car. We proceeded to the mountains without a hitch.

This was surely a “Light-bulb moment.”

The dimming of the lights in our car was a reminder from Hashem that if we wanted a safe journey, it didn’t matter if we traveled during the day or at night – as long as we journeyed with Him!